Historic Supreme Courts--Tariffs, Episode 6: When the Burger Court Said 'Not Our Job': Why Deference Won

Think of this as a conversation over coffee: the Burger Court wasn’t looking to be heroic or theatrical — it preferred steady, bureaucratic restraint. It cared more about process than motives, and if tariffs fit inside the statute and agency rules, the Court would shrug and send the fight back to Congress and voters.

So yeah, maybe not thrilling. But there’s a kind of cold comfort in knowing the Court would choose institutional humility over dramatic constitutional rescue — “not our crisis” becomes the ruling of the day.